The other day, while talking to my friend Steven on the phone, he asked me if I was doing OK financially. It was an unusual comment, especially from someone who used to work for me for many years. I didn’t take offense at the question and gave my usual litany of things that have drained money from my wealth over the years, but I basically responded that I was doing just fine. That is the right answer, we are doing just fine. I am neither flush nor impoverished, I am just fine. Check back with me in another decade and we’ll see if I am right about that. I do occasionally worry about money, but not too much, which is appropriate because during my working years on Wall Street, I worried a lot less about money than did most of my peers. So, it was interesting to me to understand why he would ask me that. He noted that is several of my blog stories I had railed about the cost of this or that.
Steven is right, I do rail about certain costs of life and they do bother me when I see how much things sometimes cost. We all have our flashpoints. I pay extra to Joventino every time he comes because I believe he earns every penny with his work ethic and effectiveness. I overpay Handy Brad when he does things for me because I think he too is underpaid in general and I want to keep myself on the top of his list if and when I need something done around the house. I feel that letting Kim have the freedom to do whatever personal services she wants and shop in whatever way she wants is well worthwhile. God knows, she earns it having to put up with my sorry ass every day. I don’t scrimp on water for my garden, propane for my hot tub, and electricity for my air conditioning…which I run far more than most people would. These are all things I think are worthwhile to make life comfortable. I also make sure that when we travel, we do it in Business Class or First Class so that I don’t have to cram myself into an uncomfortable seat for hours on end.
I will suggest that I am a bit more frugal when it comes to dining and lodging. I don’t like overpaying for expensive hotel rooms when adequate hotel rooms will do the job just fine. I have little or no tolerance for fine dining. When asked about my favorite restaurant, I always say that its whatever restaurant is closest. It’s a toss-up as to whether that last one is a function of my perception of value or my laziness, but it is true that I find very little added value in high-end cuisine. Since I don’t drink, it is even more lost on me when people order expensive wines or enjoy lots of expensive liquor. Give me a basic and good meal with a Diet Coke or Fanta Orange any day of the week. I understand that all makes me a bit pedestrian in many people’s eyes, but where I perhaps cared a little about that image issue when I was younger, I care not a whit at this age.
One of the great realities of modern life is that we all use our cards to charge things rather than paying cash. I use cash far more than most people and probably even more than most people my age, but the vast majority of things I pay for in life are on my credit cards like it is for most or all of us. My primary card is American Express. I have always liked the discipline of having to pay it off in full every month. Every other credit card I have succumbs to the temptation of deferring some charge and inadvertently wracking up some interest costs. I’m not so bad with that that I have mounds of credit cards debt, but I am lazy enough not to clean out each and every card balance each and every month. That has never happened with American Express in the 50 years that I have been a member (technically, “Member Since 1976” as stated on the front of the card…the first year of my working life.
I use the card exactly the way AMerican Express hopes I will. I have a card. Kim has a card. And my youngest son Thomas has a card (that is a vestigial holdover which I should probably end given that he will turn 30 in two months). There are literally hundreds of charges that appear on my American Express bill each month. Like everyone these days, I always opt for a paperless path through life, so I don’t receive a bill in the mail, but just get an email that my billing period has ended and the bill is due. I like the fact that AMEX affords its members the leisurely pace of paying their bill within about 25 days. That may be the part of American Express membership that I enjoy the most. It is psychologically comforting to know that I have a 25 grace periof to pay my bill. Consequently, I have NEVER paid an American Express bill late.
Unfortunately, this protocol does result in less attentiveness to my monthly charges than I should pay. I am sure that my friend Mike goes over each and every charge to his cards right when he receives the bill. I will admit that I only do this occasionally. In fact, I find is worthwhile to have RocketMoney as a service so that it will pull my chain on such things like reminding me of recurring charges or subscriptions…especially ones that increase in price as I’m asleep at the switch.
When I just looked at my AMEX bill the other day, I decided to run down the list of transactions to see what jumped out at me…or rather, what had crawled into my account unnoticed. There were the normal array of computer security services (a regular pain in the ass for all of us), but there were also four magazine subscription fees in what I would call the micro-fee range of less than $5. I have several specific magazine subscriptions which I choose to retain (New Yorker, Sunset and National Geographic), several that I am trying actively to shed (Forbes and Esquire) and then some that just seem to come to me uninvited. It is this last category that has drawn my attention. I honestly never signed up for any of those subscriptions, not even via the “free” route that finds its way into a subscription if not cancelled. So, I started with AMEX and filed a charge dispute on each. This morning I got an email from AMEX telling me that they have cancelled my dispute filing and reinstated the charges to my account since they have been given “evidence” from the vendor that these are my charges. They also provided me with a phone number to call the vendor directly. I did just that, not expecting too much responsiveness. To my surprise, the 1-800 call center person took my information and properly recited the four subscriptions, which told me that they actually were aware of my account. Without too much pique in my voice I said I had never subscribed and could I cancel please. The response shocked me. Yes, they would cancel all four subscriptions and refund me all the money I had been charged on AMEX to my AMEX card. I had not even asked for retroactive restitution and they were giving it to me, no questions asked.
In one sense this pleased me a great deal (I had solved a problem and saved money). On the other hand this annoyed me because the ease of it makes me think that the subscription company routinely tags people with unrequested subscriptions and then just plays the odds as to who will bother to cancel. I bothered and am getting my refund. Others obviously do not and end up with magazines they don’t really want or need. Is this about being impoverished, Steven? I think not. This is about principles. I am now emboldened to attack my computer security services….